"I firmly deny the accusations being issued against me. Rape is an abominable crime that goes against everything that I am and believe in. Keen as I may be to clear my name, I refuse to feed the media spectacle created by people seeking to promote themselves at my expense," he said on Twitter.

I firmly deny the accusations being issued against me. Rape is an abominable crime that goes against everything that I am and believe in. Keen as I may be to clear my name, I refuse to feed the media spectacle created by people seeking to promote themselves at my expense.

"My clear conscience will thereby allow me to await with tranquility the results of any and all investigations," he said in a second Twitter post.

The civil lawsuit filed in state court in Las Vegas alleges Ronaldo raped Mayorga, who was then 24, in his penthouse suite at a Las Vegas hotel and hired a team of what the document called "fixers" to shape a monetary settlement, obstruct a police criminal investigation and trick Mayorga into taking $375,000 to keep quiet.

Ronaldo transferred to Italian club Juventus this summer from Real Madrid at a reported fee of $123m.

Santos had excused the 33-year-old athlete from Portugal's first two post-World Cup matches, against Croatia and Italy last month, to allow him to settle at his new club.

At the FIFA World Cup in Russia earlier in June, Ronaldo led his side to the round of 16 before losing to Uruguay.

Serving a one-match suspension over a red card, the five-time world footballer of the year, watched his club team from the stands edge out Swiss side Young Boys in the European Champions’ League group game in Turin on Tuesday.

The star forward is expected to be in action for Juventus' next Serie A game against Udinese on Saturday.